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As a child growing up I loved watching Transformers Armada and its sequel shows, then I got into watching G1 Transformers and enjoyed that even more so I decided to make a top five lists of my favourite robots starting from the side of the Autobots first.

5: Rodimus Prime (G1): During the events of the Transformers movie, Optimus dies and the Matrix of Leadership then gets handed over to a few other Autobots, but at the end of the film then Hot Rod heeds the call of the Matrix and manages to defeat Unicron taking on the new mantle of Rodimus Prime. One of my favourite things that I like about this is that we get a new leader for the Autobots who doesn’t have that much knowledge on leadership, which does seem rather off putting but he was rather likable as a character.

4: Arielbots (G1): During the events throughout G1, the Autobots needed a way to defeat Menasor who had just been created by the Decepticons to up their forces and they were overpowering them. So, it was their decision to build their own combiner, this in the design of five Arielbots that were based on Cybertronian planes. Combining they form Superion and they manage to defeat the Decepticons Menasor. But there is something that I like rather more about them than the other combiners that are in the show, that I remember and that was that they ended up having some character development. In one or two episodes after they are built they are in a story where a few of them think that the Decepticons are alright and they accidentally get transported back through time where they end up meeting Megatron and Orion Pax. The Arielbots then discover how bad that the Decepticons were and they help Orion Pax beat Megatron and his Decepticons and they show their loyalty more when they realise that Orion is now Optimus Prime which is when they get back to the present, Optimus then realises them creating a possible change in the timeline or that the Arielbots were meant to go through time.

3: Optimus Prime (All): Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots and the usual main character in many of the Transformers media series and is the staple of the Transformers universe. The reason being, he is a great leader and a powerful fighter. Originally starting life as Orion Pax on Cybertron he adored Megatron but when he realised how evil he was he decided that he would stop Megatron as all cost. Another thing that I really like about Optimus through the Unicron Trilogy where we got to see him combine with characters like Jetfire, Omega Supreme and Leobreaker as usual finishing moves.

2: Grimlock (G1 & Robots in Disguise): The Dinobots are one of my favourite things about the Transformers series and I like them both in G1 and in Robots in Disguise. I like Grimlock in G1 since that he was pretty much a powerhouse and has a lot of good and funny lines through the series, but one of my favourite moments is in series 3. This is when Grimlock becomes super smart when helping the Autobots deal with anti-electrons and with this he then can create a new group of Transformers called the Technobots. For the Robots of Disguise series, I did start of being rather curious on why Grimlock was a Decepticon where they explain it rather well. But then he was then given the change of signa to the Autobots as Bumblebee entrusted him that much and since then he has been a good powerhouse for the Autobots but there is one episode that I have seen that does make him stand out. In the episode Deep Trouble, Grimlock gets hurt during a training exercise but he just passes it off as nothing to the team, but as the episode progresses it starts to hurt him more and more. He confesses it to the Bumblebee and apologises to him for hiding the injury since that it could have cost them the mission.

1: Bumblebee (Robots in Disguise): I am rather surprised that I didn’t put Optimus as the first on the list and there is a reason why, Bumblebee has more depth of a character for this than what Optimus has had in the past few series. Set after the events of Transformers Prime, Bumblebee is sent on a secret mission to Earth sent by Optimus Prime in a weird vision with him saying that a something bad is going to happen there. From there Bee is then joined by Strongarm and Sideswipe who accidently join him on Earth since that Strongarm is a cadet under Bee’s supervision and Sideswipe was under arrest at the time. Since then Bee’s team has grown a bit bigger when he enlisted the help of Grimlock, who was a prisoner on a transport ship and he then proved his worth to have Bee make him a Autobot. But something that did make him a good leader was in an episode where the team had to deal with prisoners that resemble skunks, and they could also spray to blind them. Near the end of the episode Bee concentrated hard on what he needed to do and in a bit of a Sherlockian way as well focusing on what he was going to do and It was successful managing to save his team, a city from being flooded and was able to capture the Decepticons.

I am a fan of Dragon Ball. I watched it as a kid, I’m watching it today as an adult today in the form of Dragon Ball Super and that is what I am here to discuss.

I started watching the series half way through the Universal Tournament Arc that pitted Universe 7 against Universe 6 and I really like it, even though that the ending for the arc was rather stupid since that Hit, who had beaten Goku and Vegeta, threw the final fight costing Universe 6 the tournament. For me it was a good way to introduce a new status quo for the series since that for the entirety of Dragon Ball we just had one universe that was split into four different quadrants and the only time that we ever saw the different races was in the Otherworld Tournament and we never saw them again since then. With introducing the multiverse into Dragon Ball, it did bring back the idea of using other races. So, after this arc we are then have a few filler episodes where it appears that Vegeta could die but of course that turned it be rather stupid. But this then lead into the next arc which I was looking forward to Future Trunks.

This arc was one of the first arcs I paid full attention to for some of the first part of the arc and then I think that it seemed to get rather long-winded. In this arc, Future Trunks heads back to the past since that in his timeline a new enemy has emerged and all from what we knew was that this enemy was Goku or a Goku look-a-like. Future Bulma manages to create the fuel needed to travel through time but in the end Goku Black nearly stops this from happening but Trunks manages to head back in time where on arrival he is discovered by Kid Trunks who tells his mother that a Time Machine has appeared and she then informs that Trunks has returned. After Trunks recuperates he sees Goku thinking that it was Black but Bulma manages to stop him and he then informs them on what has happened in his timeline, that a new threat had emerged and he had taken Goku’s body and this interests both Vegeta and Goku who decided to help.

Throughout the arc there were a few things that I did really like. The first was the relationship that blossomed between Trunks and Mai in the future was well handled. There was a lot of feelings for the pair especially when Trunks thought that Mai died before he went through time. But when he discovers that Mai is still alive they start to have more feelings towards each other and in the end, they end up having an actual relationship in the end in their safe universe at the cost of a second Mai and Trunks also being in that timeline. The second thing that I liked about this arc was the way that Trunks was learning about this new universe and what had happened since he left, including finding out that Krillin had married Android 18 and had a kid with her and that Gohan had retired from fighting. This seemed to rather annoy Trunks since that in the future Gohan was his mentor but after seeing what his life had been like now he understands why he retired.

But we then get to the worst about the series and that was the villains of the series that being Zamasu and Goku Black, who ended up being the same person. They were both rather annoying and preachy characters portraying beings of being justice and good when they ended up just causing chaos and disorder. Then the second thing that I did rather hate about this arc was that it did show more of Goku’s intelligence and how he ended up forgetting a lot of things that could have helped them such as the Mafuba Jar and that it ended up getting destroyed and he also forgot the seals for the jar to seal Zamasu in the jar. But in the end they were able to get rid of Zamasu by bringing the Zeno from this timeline and he destroyed the planet and then Goku did something good and rescued him to then have the Zeno from the current timeline could have a playmate.

Unfortunately we then get into the more bad traits from Goku in this latest arc for the Universal Survival where he suggests to the Zeno’s to host a tournament to battle people from the different universes. The only person that is happy about this is Goku since that he gets to fight against strong opponents but it turns out there is a price to this. The universes that lose this battle royal are going to be destroyed and Goku doesn’t seem to care that much that other people’s lives are at risk just because somebody wanted to fight. Then in the exhibition matches the rest of the universes find out that Goku was behind this they are all pissed at him. But one thing that I like about this was that Bergamo pleading his case to rest of the Gods and to the Zeno’s to recede the idea of the destruction of the universes and he does but that comes with a price and that is if Bergamo can beat Goku they won’t destroy the universe but if Goku was to go too soft in the fight they would just destroy them right there. But in the end Goku wins the match but then one of the members of Universe 11 called Toppo who challenge to a fight with Goku and Toppo is owning him but the fight is called due to the Grand Priest and Toppo brings up that there is a warrior in their universe that is stronger than himself (who is shown fighting Goku in the opening credits of the arc). But when Goku and company return to the Kai home world Beerus berates Goku for his negligence which is true, its Goku’s fault for arranging the tournament and that if they fail to win it their Universe is going to be destroyed.

So now it’s up to them to recruit a team to take on the rest of the universes and I got to say when I saw the team line up I thought it was okay, except for one. First, we have Goku, Gohan and Majin Buu who took place in the exhibition which is a good idea since that now the rest of the Universes do know who they are and the techniques they use. Next, we have Vegeta another good choice since that he is another fighter with a god energy to put against the other competitors and Vegeta’s warrior spirit could help him here. Then we have Krillin and 18 another good duo since that Krillin has had experience with tournaments and 18 was the finalist in the last world tournament who only lost to extort Mr Satan. Next, is Piccolo and Tien Shinhan another good duo since that they have been up against a lot of tough opponents along the years as well as battling against the Freeza’s warriors in the second arc. But then we have two wild cards the first is 17, who has barely been seen in the show and I think the last time that he was seen was for a brief moment on during the Kid Buu arc where he is a Park Ranger and we don’t know much on what has happened to him since then. But the most wild of all wild cards is Master Roshi who’s last big fight scene was against Freeza’s army and I still think that there could be a better choice to replace him and that is in Otherworld and his name is Pikkon for the fact that he was one of the strongest fighters from his quadrant and I think that the only reason why he isn’t referenced is because the writers forgot about him which is rather annoying since that Pikkon would be stronger than Roshi, 17 & 18 and possibly even Piccolo.

Hopefully when the actual part of the arc starts maybe something good might happen but I don’t know. But I do hope that after this arc they start doing more world building since that I know that there are a lot of people who are curious, like myself, about what life is like in the different universes and the only time that we’ve actually seen anything from a different world was the episode where we saw Hit take out a guy and we also see that Frost is wanted. I would like to know what it’s like on the Saiyan home world in where Cabba comes from and to see what has happened since he was able to reach the Super Saiyan transformation and what had changed.

Over the Christmas period I got The Amityville Horror book for Christmas and it took me about two or three weeks to read it and it got me thinking. Could the story make good more a mini-series for television?

I do think that it could make a good show for the way that the book is built since there is a lot of things in the book that would make good elements for a show since that there could be a lot adapted for longer scenes. For instance, there is a lot of the story that revolves around Father Mancuso who is dealing with the slight possession that happened to him through the book and seeing him deal with those problems. From what I remember of the film I don’t even think that he even got that much screen time. He was just annoyed with his diocese, losing faith and going blind. Yet in the book it is more different since that he can recuperate and get a lot healthier and moves on from his life for the better of his health.

Another thing that they could do better would be being able to build up the suspense more over a number of episodes. The downside of the film was that since that it was only for a roughly two hours there really isn’t that much time to really build up that much suspense over time as what a series would do. Having some sort of threat or event happening in the last act of the episode would want to bring more people into being intrigued in what has been happening or is going to happen.

With the history that this franchise has had over the past few decades I am surprised that there hasn’t been a television series been made yet. Plus, with the past few attempts that I have seen of them trying to get the latest film out it hasn’t been done rather well. Maybe with a series been made it could be more interesting towards fans and since that are many different forms of media where people can watch it, Netflix, Amazon Prime and the countless of other channels that are available.

With the new Power Rangers film on the horizon or possibly out due to possible release dates could be different with international releases.

But to just get in some notes about this list, there will be no Neo-Saban series for Power Rangers. This is more down to that I don’t think that they are that good compared to the previous series. Samurai was fighting an uphill battle adapting from the Sentai counterpart, Megaforce seemed to be rather okay but the second half of the series was rather a disappointment with since that it was the 20th anniversary of the franchise and Dino Charge started off good but then like with Megaforce I thought that it fell flat half way through and really felt rushed at the end plus the ending that pretty much makes it seem that they retconned the whole entire show. Now with that out of the way this is my top five Power Rangers series.

5: Jungle Fury: Jungle Fury for me seemed to be a good concept for a Power Rangers series, the Rangers starting out just in a group of three (Casey, Theo and Lily) are trained students in the Order of the Claw who use animal spirits to help them in battle. Plus, unlike Wild Force (another animal bases series) the villains for the series are all animal based and the designs for them are good. The villain of the series is Dai Shi a spirit of Pure Evil that was locked away for over 10,000 years but he manages to escape and possess Jarrod, another student of the Order of the Claw and is out to reclaim his power to the fullest potential. Casey, Theo and Lily are told to head to seek a new master and they do called RJ who is a Master of the Claw and he teaches the Rangers more and gives them the ability to transform into the Jungle Fury Rangers. They are then introduced to more Masters and they give them access to new weapons and they also train with them (off-screen) and then later we find out that Dai Shi is abducting them and then we see why, he is using them and turning them in to the Spirit Rangers who were designed mainly for the series and not adapted from the Sentai series which is awesome. Dai Shi as a villain is good for Power Rangers since that it was a human being possessed by an evil spirit and we then see that there are good points of Jarrod are coming out which then causes Dai Shi into the end separate from him and form into his monster form. But the best thing about it is that Jarrod realises that deep down inside there is good in him epically when he joined the Rangers and used their animal spirits to defeat Dei Shi and in the end, he re-joins the newly formed Order of the Claw and becomes a student again. The Ranger team for the series does a good job throughout and there isn’t much else that I can note.

4: SPD: When I got back into watching Power Rangers a few years ago, the first series that I picked up was Power Rangers SPD, a police based series. This did really have my attention since that one, I am a use fan of police styled shows, two, this was set in the future ahead of pervious series which seemed to only have a possibly a few years to months between them and third the story build up through the series had a good pay off in the end. The story focuses around Space Patrol Delta, what is pretty much the policing force for Earth and revolves around the B-Team of Rangers since that during the opening of the series the A-Team vanishes without a trace and they are put forward to be the lead team. It is also rather interesting since that two of the Rangers start out as criminals, but more of the Robin Hood type criminals, who then take up the mantle of Rangers by getting a second chance by the head of SPD Doggie Cruger. Over the series there is a lot of good team building episodes for the Rangers since that there was a few conflicts during the series such as Sky wanting to be the Red Ranger since that his father was a Red Ranger and that his cockiness on not wanting to be led by anyone else ranked him to being the Blue Ranger. In the end of the series was when the story became rather interesting, the A-Team is rescued and B-Team is set back to be on stand-by since that the A-Team is back. But here is what is the interesting twist, apparently during their time that they were ‘missing’ they decided to turn on SPD and captured Cruger to face off against the Rangers. This is the first time that we ever get a group of evil Rangers that aren’t being corrupted by evil that faces the Rangers, it is just an awesome thing to see and for the fact that it has been slowly building up through the series that it is a good outcome.

3: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:For me and a lot of long time Power Ranger fans, Mighty Morphin is one of the most recognised series ever since that it brought in one of the most recognisable Ranger of all time: Tommy Oliver played by Jason David Franks. The series lasts for three series, the first being adapted from the Sentai series Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger where they were shown pretty much at the same time in Japan for the Sentai and in America for Power Rangers. The story revolves around a group of five teenagers: Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini and Billy They are recruited by Zordon to protect the world from an Empress of Evil known as Rita Repulsa who uses her powers to create monsters to try and destroy the Rangers, but they usually fail. But the most success that she ever had in the series was when she created her own Ranger, the Green Ranger, from a coin that she had obtained somehow since that I don’t believe that it is explained in the series. Throughout the series there have been a lot of changes some for the good and bad of the show. The first good thing is that they started to use more original footage from the end of the first series and through till the rest of the series. The only thing that they didn’t have changed was the Monster/Zord battles where they just used the original Japanese footage except for some of the Zord fights at the beginning of season 3. Another good was that also in season 2 they brought in a new villain for the Rangers Lord Zedd who was there for American audiences. He was a more menacing villain for the Rangers than what Rita was and since that they had pretty much used all the footage of Rita that they had for season 1 but she would end up returning with a proper actress to play her. But with the good also came the bad. During the halfway through the series three of the main cast left the show after problems due to low payments as well as trying to form a union. This then led to eight episodes where Jason, Zack and Trini were replaced by completely different actors since that they sounded nothing like them. Luckily enough we did see Jason return in Zeo and in the new comics by Boom! Studios we see what happened with Zack and Trini. Overall I do find that this series to be the one that is most nostalgic for me since that it’s the one that I grew up with and it’s one of the few series that I own.

2: In Space: For a long time, I always thought that In Space was one of the best storyline series of Power Rangers and I still do, but there is one that I think was better. But we are here to talk about In Space. After the ending of Turbo CJ, Cassey, Ashley and Carlos head into space to find Zordon where they end up meeting a new Power Ranger, Andros, who is an alien from another planet who is looking for Zordon as well as a subplot of him looking for his sister who was taken as a child. Andros at first doesn’t trust them but when the ship that they are on is attacked by Andromeda and her minions of the series attack and after some convincing from Alpha he gives them their new morphers and they become the new Space Rangers. Throughout the series, they travel through the system looking for Zordon and finding clues to where he is but in the end, most of it comes to no use but they do get some sort of new items such as getting a new Megazord. But some of the interesting things come in the series when Andros finds out that Andromeda is his sister and her name is Karone and there she tries to become a good person but she then gets brainwashed and reprogrammed to only serve the Dark Spector. But that’s not all that she ends up doing, for a few episodes she even creates a group of evil Rangers to battle against the Power Rangers and boy do the Psycho Rangers completely own the Rangers. In the very end of the series we see that the villains for the series show there most dominance by being able to take over various planets and taking down other Rangers and massing a large attack on Earth that was even able to destroy one of the Megazord. The thing that I really liked about the finale was the fact that even Bulk and Skull still have the hope that the Rangers can prevail and in the end, they do. Andros manages to find Zordon on the Dark Fortress and smashes his tube to let all the good energy flow through the universe and ‘destroys all evil’ through the universe, which is a load of bull but since that it was considered the final series it would have made sense.

1: RPM: In all honesty, I have never watched a single episode fully of RPM, everything that I have learned from this show is from Linkara’s History of Power Rangers since that it is a biased standpoint on the Power Rangers franchise. But from what I have seen from it, this looks like to be one of the better Power Rangers series for stories and character development since that they didn’t just focus on one character like in MMPR where most of the focus was on Tommy when he was going through relationships or losing or regaining powers. Each of the Rangers has their own storylines at the beginning of the series and we then see that each of the links into how they ended up meeting each other. The main twist in the series is when we see Doctor K’s backstory and we find that as a revenge plot that she created the Venjix virus which pretty much destroyed the entire planet except for one city where the Rangers are based out of. Through the series, the focus of the series is something that was similar to what In Space had done where Dillon, the black ranger who is looking for his sister when they were captured but he managed to escape. The development for this was well done but since that it was a pretty much done the same as what In Space did. This group of Rangers is some of the more likable of what I have seen in Power Rangers all together which says a lot since that there were some teams that were good but some that were abysmal. In the end the Rangers manage to defeat Venjix but since that this like In Space was the final series, RPM was also a series that was supposed to be the last. But the interesting thing about this was that there was a rather cliff-hanger ending to the series where we see a red light on one of the morphers giving the idea that Venjix wasn’t defeated. That is why I like this series when we think that the villain is out but he isn’t, it’s just a shame that the RPM universe was considered to be an alternate time-line than the rest of the Ranger-verse.

One day when I was playing Dungeons and Dragons at a friend’s house we took a small break and we watched some of Community since that everyone there had already watched most of the show but I had not yet. I watched an episode and I freaking loved it. So then I bought all five seasons (at the time since then the sixth season is out) and watched them all in the span of a week. One year later I have decided to make a top ten list of my favourite episodes. However, this isn’t an actual top whatever list but just a list of ten episodes that I like and going from series to series mainly since I think it would be hard to make a list of ten and then reordering them.(This was meant to be a top ten list but I got really tired and lazy trying to get this out.)

Spanish 101: One of the first episodes that I do like from Community is Spanish 101 for two things, the story with Jeff and Peirce and ending with Troy and Abed. The episode revolves around Jeff trying to spend time with Britta and plans on doing it by trying to work with her on an assignment but Pierce swaps with Britta causing Jeff to be rather annoyed. In the study room Jeff waits for Peirce who arrives late and Jeff just wants to get the assignment over and done with quickly, however Peirce has other ideas. He decides that they need put on a whole show that barely has anything to do with the assignment. Troy and Abed then come along and show off what they are doing for the assignment and Jeff then snaps at Peirce who then leaves to try and hit on Britta at the silent protest that is happening outside. The next day after Peirce’s drunken ramblings their teacher, Chang, gives Jeff a passing grade and Peirce to so the assignment by himself. But Jeff decides to stand up with Peirce and does the whole show with him and we get a montage of the different scenes they had cutting along with the images of the rest of the gang seeing the craziness that happens. They both get low grades and they start to have more of a friendly bond between each other. Now to the second part of why I like this episode is the rap at the very end where Troy and Abed converse in Spanish what they were saying and just start putting nonsense together since that’s what the subtitles translated.

Modern Warfare: For the first season I think that this is one of my favourite episodes. The episode starts off as any usual episode of Community but then things change quickly as Jeff takes a nap in his car to find that the whole campus is deserted and covered with paintballs. Jeff finds out that The Dean Pelton announced that the prize has students hunting each other down. Jeff nearly gets attacked by Leonard but Abed saves him and delivers an adlibbed Terminator 2 line. They arrive back with Troy and Jeff discovers what the prize is priority registration for next semester. The chess club then tries to attack them but the gang uses a trap to shoot them in the back, also Jeff takes off his sweater to have a Bruce Willis from Die Hard image. They head out of their safe room and find Peirce with Starburns who gets shot by him. They head into the toilets to have a pee break where they get ambushed by Britta, Annie and Shirley. They join forces and they head across campus where Troy and Annie get hit by the Glee Club, Jeff uses Peirce as bait and he finds out where the Glee club are and they take them out. Later that night in the cafeteria the remaining members go over what they are going to do with their priority registration and Shirley says that she is going to book morning classes so that she can spend more time with her boys and then the roller-skater troop attacks them and Shirley and Abed are taken out of the game. Dean Pelton talks with Chang in his office where Chang asks for him to be put in the game so that he can take them out and gets enrolled in a class. In the study room, Britta patches up Jeff and they end up banging. Britta tries to get the jump on Jeff but he was one step ahead but Chang comes in wielding an advanced paintball gun and then gets into a slow-motion shoot off with Britta who gets hit but Chang also gets hit who starts to detonate a paint bomb that engulfs the entire room with green paint. Jeff goes to Dean Pelton’s office and blasts around the office with Chang’s paintball gun and Dean Pelton tries to give Jeff the blu-ray player but he shoots him in the head and asks that he wants the priority registration which the next day he gives to Shirley. I love this episode since that it pretty much is homage to 80’s action movies but most notably Die Hard and since they swapped from guns to paintball it was a really good touch.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: I love playing Dungeons and Dragons and this is something that I really do like. The episode starts off with a voice over introducing a character called Neil who transferred there after being bullied but the same starts to happen at Greendale. Jeff observes him and tries to cheer him up with bringing up his interest in D&D. Neil gives Jeff all of his manuals that he has which has Jeff worried about him so he gets the group together play a game with Neil to cheer up his spirit and they didn’t invite Pierce since he is rather a bit of a dick. Abed acts as the dungeon master for the group and Chang start playing with characters whilst Neil plays as his own character and he manages to impress them by killing the first wave of enemies with one swing. Pierce arrives in the study hall and is rather pissed that he wasn’t invited to play and Abed plays him into the game where he plays himself. Neil gives his character his cloak and Peirce uses his turn to steal Neil’s sword and flees from the group. Jeff and the group now decide that the group would hunt down Peirce and recover Neil’s weapon and Peirce goes off and gets some help from another student getting ahead of the group’s advancements. The group advance their story by heading to a town to acquire a Pegasus to pursuit Peirce and Annie seduces an elf to get the Pegasus. Peirce returns to the group and he uses his newly acquired amulet that controls Draconis to freeze time and transforms Neil’s character to be overweight. Peirce also uses his turn to tell Neil that it was Jeff who coined the term Fat Neil but Neil doesn’t seem to care and uses his turn to show pity on Peirce and the rest of the group does the same. Peirce gets frustrated with inactivity of the group and unfreezes time and he tries to go for another move but that uses up his turn and Neil attacks Peirce with the sword by throwing it at the amulet around his neck and Draconis eats Peirce and the dragon gives them some of the treasure that he has been hoarding ending the campaign. I mainly like this episode since that it does show up on how much of a dick that Peirce even for a fictional world. Also I like the opening credits for the show since that they have a more unique look since that all the actors had a more fantasy based images used for their pictures.

Critical Film Studies: This is a pretty interesting episode of Community since that it parodies two films, Pulp Fiction and My Dinner with Andre. This I did rather like since that looking at the promos for it showed that it was going to be a Pulp Fiction parody and this twist is rather good. The episode has Jeff and Abed having dinner at a fancy restaurant and Jeff notices something different about Abed and that he is acting social and normal. Jeff also wants to get through this dinner so that he can then take Abed to his surprise party that is, of-course, Pulp Fiction themed, where Britta was able to get the diner that she worked at booked for the party. In the restaurant Abed tells Jeff about his trip to the Cougar Town set where he played an extra in the show (which he actually did). Abed also manages to get Jeff to open up and have a real conversation where Jeff lets out his insecurities and recalls an incident where he had to dress up as an Indian girl. Meanwhile at the Diner Troy seems to be jealous about the gift that Jeff had got Abed since it was a briefcase (copying from Pulp Fiction) and Chang tries to get Troy to open up the briefcase, which he does and discovers there is a lightbulb and a certificate of authenticity claiming that the briefcase is the one that was used in Pulp Fiction. The bulb ends up overheating and then causes the certificate to burn. Troy blames Chang for what happened and starts breaking things in the diner. Jeff gets annoyed with Abed when he finds out that what he was doing was all an act and the rest of the gang comes in revealing that they had a surprise party planned and Britta even got fired from the job because of the damages. Later Abed meets with Jeff at the diner and brings up the reason of the ploy and that is he feels that him and Jeff had feel like they were drifting apart and it was his idea to get them back together. I like this episode for the homages to Pulp Fiction and it works really good way and the plan that Abed came up was rather unique.

A Fistful of Paintballs: This and the sequel episodes are my favourite episodes of all time. The episode starts off with Annie saving Neil from a group of bullies but when he wants a gun he gets shot. Dean Pelton had come up with a new paintball concept since that last year’s contest was a failure. This time around he partnered up with Pistol Patty’s Cowboy Creamery, an ice cream company who ponied up $100,000 for the winner and that’s how the pandemonium starts. Annie finds Abed back at her camp and he asks for her to join him, Jeff and Chang. But back with them they have been trapped by the math club and Chang betrays Jeff but Abed makes the save but Chang gets away. Jeff informs Annie that he is low on ammo and they discuss whether or not to align themselves with Peirce who is held in the cafeteria or steal it, but they are interrupted by the Black Rider but they manage to evade him noting that he doesn’t look like a student that goes there. Heading to the cafeteria they run into Britta, Shirley and Troy who are working for Peirce who has set up safe zone named after himself Fort Hawthorn. Peirce says that they should team up and split the cash between themselves and tells them where the ammo stash is at. Whilst looking for the stash Annie rescues Chang from a group of cheerleaders, Chang gets away from her and Annie peruses him to find The Black Rider. Abed and Jeff arrive to save Annie and she discovers that Peirce had loaded Jeff’s gun with blanks and they head off the Dean’s office where he is hiding in the supply closet with the paintball stash where they stock up and Annie takes Chang’s paintball gun from last year and they head back to Peirce. They find the room trashed and they find Peirce and confront him, he says that he filled the gun with blanks because he was pissed that he didn’t get invited to a card game the group had but it turns out they weren’t playing, but in fact voting to see if Peirce would be allowed in the study group for next year. But it turns out that he is still in since that it had to be a unanimous decision and that Annie voted to keep him in but nobody else knows. The Black Rider emerges and gets into a stand-off with Jeff as Annie gets in a stand-off with Peirce. Pierce feigns a heart attack but when the Black Rider goes to help him he gets shot by Pierce, the Black Rider then reveals that he was only there since he worked for Pistol Patty so that they can keep the money, Peirce runs off vowing revenge. But here we come to the best part of the episode. Chang is seen looking for a new alliance when he is shot by a paintball machine gun from the back of Pistol Patty’s van where a group of people dressed up as a commando team disembark where Pistol Patty announces that it’s time for Plan B Operation Total Invasion. The good thing about this episode is that it starts out as a western film, parodying spaghetti westerns most notably the Dollars Trilogy but then at the end it completely changes leading into the second part.

A Few Paintballs More: This is a pretty good follow up to from the first part and then it turns into a Star Wars parody, but the first thing that I want to talk about is this, I am sure that this episode I’m sure inspired the Death Troopers in The Purge: Anarchy since there are a group that goes around with a machine gun in the back of a truck and this episode aired in 2011 which aired two years before the first film, but that could just be a coincidence. The episode begins with a text crawl going over what had happened before. Pistol Patty and a squadron of Troopers march through the halls of Greendale and arrive at the Dean Pelton’s office to then reveal that Patty is in face Dean Spreck, of rivals City College, and he tells Pelton of his plan which Abed and Troy overhear. Troy and Abed return to the surviving students and form a rebel alliance to defeat the Troopers and win the cash to repair the campus, but this also causes a problem between Jeff and Troy to see who would be the leader. During the bickering Spreck sends in a robot armed with a paint bomb to get everyone in the room but Magnitude sacrifices himself for the rest of the rebels. Peirce gets captured by the Troopers but convinces them to take him as prisoner offering to give them information on Jeff. Abed flirts with Annie going through a Han Solo impersonation and she is attracted to this personality. Troy and Jeff come up with two different plans to take on the Troopers with Jeff wanting to do an all-out attack to get the gun in the Ice Cream van whilst Troy says that they should lure them into the Library setting up the sprinkler system to cover them in paint. But Annie being the voice of reason suggests they do both by using Troy’s plan as a distraction to take the gun. Troy, Abed, Annie and Shirley draw some Troopers in the Library whilst Jeff’s group goes after the gun. Troy’s team manages to fortify themselves in the study room but when they try to escape through the vent but they can’t escape due to one of them getting stuck in the vent. So they decide to shoot their way out of the building and Troy is shot during the escape but Abed and Annie manage to barricade themselves in a room and Shirley is able to set off the alarm and they are able to take out the Troopers as well as Abed and Annie, who share a kiss in the raining paint and Abed snaps out of his Han Solo persona. Meanwhile with Jeff’s team the gun overpowers their team with Britta being the sole survivor from their team, but Shirley rescues her in a golf buggy and they shoot the remaining Troopers but Britta gets hit during their run. As Shirley celebrates she gets shot by two troopers but Pierce manages to feign a heart attack again and shoots the two remaining enemies and wins the fight for Greendale. He then announces that he is going to give the money to the school and the people rejoice. The next day the study group meets in the library minus Peirce (who arrives later) talking about what classes they are going to take next semester. Peirce arrives and starts telling them their story that he has been at Greendale for 12 years and that this is the only group that he has been a part of and is the only group that has ever wanted him. In the end he decides that he no longer is going to be part of the study group and the group just thinks that he is acting out but he doesn’t return ending the series. It is a really good ending for the series and the parodies for Star Wars are really good. Also from what I found (from Wikipedia) that after Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gave the direction to Joe and Anthony Russo for Captain America: The Winter Soldier after watching the finale in which Joe directed.

Digital Estate Planning: One of the things that I do like about this show is that a couple of times they will do an episode that is rather unique and I think this is one of my favourite one. The episode consists of Peirce and the group being invited to a warehouse where they are met by Gilbert Lawson who is Pierces father’s assistant. He informs him and the group that in his father’s last will and testament it was is dying wish for Pierce and seven friends to play a game that he had in development for thirty years. The game is pretty cool since that they decided to go with the more retro designing of 8-bit gaming to modern day graphics. In the game they are greeted by Cornelius, Pierces’ father, who tells them that this is actually a punishment for him since that Pierce questioned the moist toweletees industry and that the first player that reaches the end of the game wins Pierce’s inheritance and Gilbert will take the position of the eight player. Plus, for a twist Gilbert knows a lot about the game and easily kills the group to progress further in the game. After restarting from the game the group come across the first village where Abed falls for a NPC called Hilda. But whilst going through the town looking for a clue for the game, Britta creates a strength potion that Jeff believes is actually poison and during that time Annie and Shirley manage to kill the towns blacksmith and his wife (Hilda’s parents) and decide to burn down the entire town down to erase their traces there. Gilbert then arrives, levelled up and kills the group but when he kills Britta he drinks the ‘Potion of Strength’ and dies since Jeff was right and it was actually poisonous and Gilbert is sent back to the start of the game. Gilbert becomes frustrated and he decides to use cheat codes and turns his character invincible. Abed decides to stay with Hilda and rebuild her life and after beating most of the team they find the item they need to get to the last level, the white crystal. Gilbert confronts the group and when they try to attack they just reflect off him. Jeff and Peirce realise that he is cheating and confronts Gilbert out of the game where he goes on to give them his backstory where it turns out that he in fact Peirce half-brother since his father had an affair and says that he deserves Pierces inheritance and that he was more of a son than what Peirce was. They head back into the game and they find that Abed has built a large castle and an endless amount of resources to build up what they need. Gilbert arrives at the end where Cornelius congratulates him and says he worn stand for his lies and asks him to sign an agreement disavowing him from the Hawthorne bloodline, but he rejects it and Cornelius starts a war against him. The group arrives heavily armed at the castle and is able to defeat Cornelius but everyone has sacrificed themselves to defeat him and Gilbert is the only one left standing, who rejects it believing that he is not deserve it. Gilbert thanks the group and starts to bond with Peirce whilst offering drinks for the rest of the gang and Abed manages to get a copy of Hilda before leaving. I like this episode for quite a few reasons, I’m a big gamer and that something more different for a design it is well designed.

If there is one that I like watching around the Christmas season it is the usual specials that shows do that are based or set around Christmas. Now since that there have been shows like The Simpsons that have the usual specials throughout its near thirty year tenure, I will only be putting in one episode for each show.

4: Family Guy: Road to the North Pole: In 2010 Family Guy continued with their Road to series that has had quite a few popular moments and this is possibly my second favourite episode. In this episode Brian takes Stewie to see a Mall Santa that is rather disappointment so Stewie decides to go and kill Santa in the North Pole, bringing Brian along with him. After a few problems later Stewie and Brian find their way to Santa’s Workshop where they find it to only be a dark and gloomy factory that seems to be heavily polluted and a lifeless waste land where they then find that Santa is sick and depressed. Santa reveals to the two that over the many years that with the world’s population growing he had became overwhelmed with the demand for fancier presents for each and every year. Santa starts to get sicker and Stewie and Brian decide to take up the mantle of Santa and deliver the presents for him. This then leads to Brian and Stewie realising that Santa’s job is rather difficult since that in their first house they ended up being seen by the family and then realised that it was the wrong house and that took a whole hour. On Christmas morning the whole town finds that they don’t have any presents and Brian and Stewie appear on TV bringing out the dying Santa and informs the residents that humanity’s greed is killing Santa and that they should only get one present a year so that Santa can start to regain his health. One year later everything seems to be back together and Santa is a healthier thanks to the less of a demand for presents. I do like this episode since that it does have quite a nice message to it since that the world that we do live in seems to be more commercial and a proportion of people wanting more and more presents each year making the meaning of Christmas rather moot. The beginning of the episode is what rather seems to be more of the downside for the episode and I would just skip forward to when they get to Canada.

3: American Dad!: For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls: In 2010 American Dad too continued with their Christmas series with this episode and for me it is a rather good one to. As usual canon in the show Stan rather despises Jeff since that he hasn’t done anything good in his life but Francine wants Stan to have Jeff be joined in on the family traditions. Stan then decides that it time that Steve has a gun and against Francine’s wishes he still gives it to Steve and they use some snowmen in a parking lot. But it turns out that behind one of the snowmen was apparently a Mall Santa and with this Steve decides never to use a weapon again. Stan convinces Steve to hide the body from Francine to see if he was in the CIA database but it turns out that the DNA doesn’t match anybody at all. Francine and Hayley discover what they have done and that they all go into the woods and bury the Santa and make a pact to not share with anyone what they had done. The next day they then get messages all with Christmas based puns that somebody knows that Santa was killed. The Smiths return to the site when they find that the body was goneAn elf appears to them and says that Santa is rejuvenating and vows vengeance against the Smith family and they decide to hide out in the woods with Roger, who has his own side story looking for booze, with the help of Bob Todd. Jeff manages to find where the Smiths with Hayley telling him where they would be which also lead Santa finding them also to Jeff’s ignorance. It also is revealed that Bob Todd’s house is also an armoury where they all fend off the attack from Santa’s army that consist of Elves, reindeer and snow-trolls. In the end Stan gets injured and Santa gives a proposition for Jeff giving him the Relic from the Golden Compass. Jeff goes to Santa’s side but then heel turns stabbing Santa and dragging Stan away to safety. The two then start to see more eye-to-eye about things including their love for Hayley. The end of the war comes as Christmas Morning happens and Santa’s vengeance stops, at least until next year when Santa can get his revenge and now the Smiths now have a new tradition. I do like this episode since that it is written rather well with the continuity in hand, which I don’t think most shows usually have like this. Plus the lingering threat that Santa can strike again on Christmas Eve is something that does leave for a sequel which they do make.

2: Futurama: X-Mas Story: Futurama is one of my favourite animated series and this is a really good episode from the early days of the series. In this Fry celebrates his first X-Mas and the Planet Express staff decide to decorate the building to help him feel more nostalgic. Fry decides to go out and buy Leela a X-mas present since that she had a string of bad X-masses since that she grew up in an orphanage. The others inform Fry to be back before sun down since that Robot Santa Claus will come out and kill anyone who is outside then. They then give the back story of the Robot Santa that he was created to determine who was on the naughty and nice list but a programming error turned the robot into a killing machine when his standards set too high thus he would kill anyone that was on the naughty list which is everybody. Fry manages to find a present for Leela in the form of a parrot, but it flies away and Leela decides to go out and get Fry before Robot Santa arrives. Fry manages to find the parrot atop a large building and Leela manages to save Fry but it’s really too late, Robot Santa has arrived. He hunts down the two chasing them around the city. Fry and Leela managed to get into Planet Express but Robot Santa manages to break into Planet Express through the chimney and he tells them that they have all been naughty, except for Dr Zoidburg for some reason who manages to help the team force Robot Santa back into the chimney and blow him into the stratosphere with his reindeer as well. In the end everyone celebrates by singing a song to then see that Robot Santa promises that he will be back next X-Mas. I do love this episode since that the chase scene through New New York is rather cool and interesting and brings in, at least one of my most favourable quotes; your mistletoe is no match for my TOW missile. It is always a good episode that I do like to watch whenever it is on.

1: The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire: I had a pretty hard time deciding on which episode that I would have picked but the reason why I picked this was that it was the first actual episode of The Simpsons that was made for television that wasn’t a short. The episode begins at Springfield Elementary where the school is doing a pageant for Christmas where we see Lisa’s year covering the different ways countries celebrate Christmas. This then leads the family writing their letters to Santa yet when reading Bart’s letter to Santa, Homer and Marge become enraged to see that he wants to get a tattoo and they forbid him to get a tattoo. Whilst Christmas Shopping the next day Bart slips off to a Tattoo Parlour and attempts to get a tattoo done with the typical Mother design. Marge finds out that Bart is getting a tattoo and pulls him out and drags him down to a dermatologist to have it removed. This leads to using all the money that they were going to use on for spending money on getting the tattoo removed. Meanwhile when Homer is at work he finds out that Mr Burns isn’t going to be giving them their holiday bonus and then discovered that there is no money for presents he decides to become a Mall Santa as suggested by his friend Barney. On Christmas Eve Bart finds out that Homer is a Mall Santa but even worse is that Homer finds out that he has been paid less than expected. But Barney then comes up with the idea to take his pay and bet it on the greyhound races. Homer decides to bet all of his money on a dog called ‘Santa’s Little Helper’ as some sort of sign but looses it all as it comes in last place and he then see’s the dog’s owner disown him for losing the race. Bart pleads with Homer to keep the dog which he agrees to them. When they get home, Homer comes clean about not getting his bonus but the family considers Santa’s Little Helper to be their present which they all accept into the family. Even for the very first episode this episode does still hold up rather well and is a rather good story since that Homer goes out of his way to try and get money for presents since of the problems that occur.

So when it came to the end of season five last year I got to be rather admitting I didn’t really like that season but when this season started I was rather hooked on it.

The first thing that did have me rather hooked was the fact that they lingered a lot on Jon Snow and having him teased if he was going to be alive or dead through the first few episodes. There was a lot of information that came out when filming started that Kit Harrington was spotted on set so that easily started up the rumours that he was going to be alive. This ended up being true. Jon got brought back to life at the end of the second episode and from there a lot of things started to change for him. Sansa ended up travelling to Castle Black and was reunited and they decided to go and take back Winterfell from Ramsey Bolton. This was one of the stories that I did like rather more in this season above the other stories except for one which I will get to later.

The next thing that I did rather like was that we got more contexts on the White Walkers and on how they were created. We also learned a lot more on what they are like since that the main ones like the Night King aren’t affected by one of the main weakness that the grunts have and that is they aren’t weak to fire so I am guessing that their only weakness then could be Valaryian Steel which has killed other White Walkers. I do hope that in the next episodes that are left that that we can see more of the White Walkers and what they could be put up against.

Time to do a switch and there was one thing that I did rather find to be the most boring that the series is done. This is Arya’s arc that she had where pretty much every episode that she was just kept getting beaten up by a girl with a stick. I just thought that this was a boring repetitive sequence and I was glad that she decided to leave Bravos and come back to Westeros and had a really awesome scene where she finally got her revenge on the person that killed her mother and brother. Hopefully for the next thirteen episodes there will be a reunion between Arya, Sansa, Jon and Bran.

So at the end of last season Daenerys being surrounded by a load of Dothraki and we then find out that she is then taken by them for her to then reveal to them that she was married to Khal Drogo and then she was sent to the same place where Khal’s wives are sent to where she would live out her days with the other widows. But Daenerys being the rather awesome person that she was managed to round up all the remaining Khal’s and burned them all alive and preached to the remaining survivors that she is going to take back what is rightfully hers and forms a union of all the different Khalisars to form her own and then she managed to then find Drogon and then return to Mereen where Tyrion did manage to screw things up and had the people from Slavers Bay attacking the city and she was easily able to handle the remaining forces and managed to get peace for the city once and for all. But the best thing that has came from Daenerys this season is when she formed a union with Yara Greyjoy and her fleet of ships as well a Varys who seems to as well as united another two houses with the Targaryens that being House Dorne and Tyrell. With the amount of people, ships and resources at hand I can’t wait to see what Daenerys is going to be doing over the next remaining episodes.

So Battle of the Bastards for me was a really enjoyable episode from beginning to end. We finally got a lot of good action and most importantly Ramsey Snow (Bolton) got killed off in the most practical way ever, by his own dogs. But I am getting a head of myself. In this episode we saw something that we really haven’t seen that much of since season two and that was battle tactics. Ramsey’s forces had a really great offensive and defensive strategy which they use when they had Jon’s forces pretty much trapped between a circle of shields and a mound of dead bodies where more forces where coming over the top of the dead bodies. But Jon’s forces were able to be saved thanks to a mysterious message that Sansa had sent to somebody but there wasn’t a clue to who it would be, and since that there was somebody who apparently was able to see what she wrote I decided not to see it and be surprised if something was to happen in the show. It turns out that Sansa wrote a letter to Littlefinger and he and the Knights of the Vale rode up and helped win the battle in Jon’s favour. Ramsey then heads back to Winterfell but that turns out to be a waste of time since the only surviving Giant from the battle at Castle Black broke the door and gave them all a way to get into Winterfell but then got killed by Ramsey. But in one-on-one combat between Jon and Ramsey, Jon could have easily killed him but instead Jon knocked him out and then had him strapped to a chair and was then killed with his own dogs. This was possibly one of the best structured stories for this series alone and I look forward to see, like with Daenerys, what is going to happen in Winterfell with Jon and Sansa.

So the beginning of episode ten was rather action packed and seemed to be completely different from the majority of episodes even from different seasons. We see the starts of the trial for Loras Tyrell where he confesses all of his sins and wishes to be part of the High Sparrow’s flock but then when it comes to the time where Cersei is supposed to be on trial she isn’t even there yet, however Lancel notices a child running from the Sept and decides to follow him where he then leads him down beneath the Sept and into a area where there appears to be casks of wildfire and a candle burning away in a pool of it. Meanwhile in the Sept, Margery wanted to leave but the Sparrows blocked anyone from leaving and then we cut to where the candle is and it reaches its lowest point and ignites the wildfire and blows the Sept up with everyone in it. The only other person that wasn’t there at the time was Tommen and he witnessed the explosion from his bedroom and realised what was happened jumped out of the window. Thus Cersei’s witch’s premonition came full circle and she then, somehow, became Queen of Westeros. I found this to be rather of a cool thing to see but the once scene that when Jamie returned from the siege at Riverrun and saw the destruction and green flames coming from the city and headed straight to the castle and saw Cersei being crowned. It was a well put together scenes and is a real memorable moment for the series.

But there is one thing that I haven’t talked about yet and it is a rumour that has been circling around for many years and that it R=L=J, R being Rhaegar L being Lyanna and J being Jon Snow. This was brought up in the series with Bran’s vision quest that he has through the series where he can see throughout time. There is one of his visions that take him to see a younger version of his father to a scene where he was facing off against remaining members of the Targaryens soldiers who were told to remain at the Tower of Joy and after fighting is finished Ned hears a woman screaming in the tower and runs off to it. But then we don’t see any resolution to this until the final episode when Bran re-enters the vision and see that Ned was reunited with his sister who was dying because of blood loss during child birth and from that point Bran realises now that Jon is a Stark and is his cousin as well. But that’s not also the confirming part, Lyanna then whispers to Ned the name of the father and promises not to tell Robert the truth and to protect him. Like with Sansa’s letter there was somebody who may have figured out who the father was but the more realistic theory is the fact that the tower is in Dornish territory, who have been a staple in the Targaryens houses for a long time, but the tower was also guarded by some of the best fighters that Rhaegar and Aerys had that weren’t at the Battle of the Trident and there must have been a good reason why they weren’t there and the only reason that I could think of would be the fact that Rhaegar would be Jon’s father.

So that is the end of this series and the fact that it is confirmed that there are only going to be thirteen episodes left of the series I am looking forward to all of them and what wars that are going to be coming since on one side we have a large fleet of ships with thousands and thousands of Dothraki as well as three large Dragons, a House getting back into ruling the North as well as the threat that is slowly coming down to Westeros from beyond the wall… Winter is HERE.